Psych Ops Series| Notifications slaved all smartphone users

Trigger is working so well. The ability of normal landline phone is extended and became a part of the life. The ease of use also have been taken a back seat when considering a product development.

It is so powerful that to concentrate on the regular work you need silence your mobile and this trigger has just ruined our life, it is just incredible to control the decision. The amount of attention a person gives makes him more powerless to it.

The metrics from the research are many, and all of them show you only one thing i.e., "Humans are becoming more attentive to mobile phones that they are also losing the touch with reality". In the same phone you can find the methods to reduce the excessive usage.

Let me get to the marketing aspects of the notification.

The push notifications are deal-changers especially to the Consumer Based Companies - To frank companies that run completely on mobile apps. From giving coupons to tempting you out to buy your cravings. 

For the mentioned company the entire task of acquiring and running ads runs in two broad places.

The first one is to get the audience to download the app and another is to get the user to generate revenue using it.

To get the audience to download we use the social media based ads targeting the user audience. The tough part is to get the user of the app to generate the targeted revenue. The second stage of getting audience to generate the revenue becomes more tactical to get them hooked to the app.

Let's get into the scientific and proven method of getting the user hooked.

There are four stages of getting a user hooked to the application. Hooked is nothing but making the application part of his lifestyle.

1. Trigger

2. Action

3. Variable Reward

4. Investment

Any application which wants to make itself part of the lifestyle of the use need to follow through the stages

Trigger - In other words - a notification or an add which prompts the user

Action - This Trigger needs to generate action from the user in anticipation of the variable reward

Variable Reward - This would create a craving for the user

Investment - It's not financial investment, it is an action bringing more users into the app. Like invites into the app or social media posts and so on.

"The ultimate goal of a habit forming product is to solve the user's pain by creating an association so that the user identifies the company's product or service is a source of relief" this is a quote by Nir Eyal

To generate these elements of getting users to be hooked is unique from the product to product and service to service and that's the craft that leads to success.

 

I am going to the financial side of this issue. It is bigger thing that led to the start ups crushing down into losses.

So, What led them to that?

"Variable Reward"

It is the duty of the managers to make sure the company stays profitable at the operations level or at least breakeven. Anything less than that will lead to a depressive suicide of the company.

This rule will not apply to the companies such as social networks where the investment made by them at the fourth stage is more valuable. I meant the users they bring into network will lead to a cyclical revenue generation. Just for information, for say ten people of your school or community are on a social media, that drives the entire community to join the platform because of the emotional fears "Fear of missing out" (generally referred as FOMO).

So, in the end of the day - "Positive Cashflows is what it matters". That's my belief in any product to make a successful debut into the ecosystem. The potential to raise the cashflows is what draws the investment, without that it is just a hype.